This is the perfect recipe to make if you’re looking for something simple to satisfy your salty or sweet craving. I find it a good recipe because there are no fancy ingredients involved, just everyday house hold items I’m sure you’ll find in your kitchen. These pretzels are naturally a sweeter pretzel with a soft buttery taste. It is also a very versatile recipe allowing you to incorporate many different flavours from brown sugar and cinnamon to garlic butter, to jalapeño and cheese, etc. The varieties are endless.
The Recipe:
2 packets active dry yeast
2 teaspoon brown sugar
1 1/4 cups warm water
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 cup baking soda
4 cups boiling water
1 stick of butter
Salt to sprinkle
Before I start the how to, I just want to tell you the importance of kneading your dough. Kneading makes your dough light and airy giving it that soft chew. For this recipe you will knead dough for 7 minutes.
The how to:
In a bowl add yeast, brown sugar and warm water and let sit in order for the yeast to dissolve. You will know it is ready when it becomes creamy and starts foaming like no tomorrow. Let sit for around 10 minutes.
In a bigger bowl, plastic works best, add together the flour, white sugar, and salt and quickly mix together and create a well in the middle. Once yeast is ready add it into the well along with the canola oil and mix together with a wooden spoon to create the dough. If the dough is too dry you can continue adding in warm water 1 tablespoon at a time until you get your desired dough texture. Once dough is ready, flour a flat surface and start kneading the dough for about 7 minutes. Then cover the dough with a light layer of oil and put into a bowl to let rise. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a dish cloth and let rise for about an hour and a half in a warm place.
Preheat oven to 415F and grease 2 baking sheets.
In another bowl add together the baking soda and hot water.
Remove dough from bowl and divide into 10-12 even balls.
Now its time to form the pretzel shape, roll out balls into ropes and twist into the pretzel form. Once each ball is made into a pretzel, dip each one individually into the baking soda and water solution and place on baking sheet.
Place on the highest rack in your oven and cook for 7-10 minutes or until it has a golden brown exterior.
NOTE- halfway through cooking in the oven, melt butter and brush on top of each pretzel and place back inside. This allows for the butter to be absorbed into the pretzel and leaves it less oily.
When your pretzels are ready, lightly sprinkle salt onto each one and serve.
Other options I like to do is a garlic butter instead of just plain butter. Mince 2 cloves of garlic and add into a bowl with melted butter and then brush onto the pretzels, or you can make a cheese pretzel by adding in shredded cheese to the recipe before cooking around 1 1/2 cup cheddar cheese and knead into the dough. The third option, my fiancées favourite, I do it a little differently. Instead of buttering pretzels halfway through, I do it once they are done baking in the oven. The mixture I like to make is melted butter with around 2 tablespoons of honey, I brush the mixture onto the pretzels then I sprinkle on top a mix of 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.
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